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Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Grooming parlours: be careful what you say!

About a week ago a friend of mine decided to take her three year old long-haired corgi to a grooming parlour for the first time. She had decided to go because she was finding it hard to keep up with the brushing of her dog, Bess’s, fur. Now as you know corgis, like all other long haired animals, need to be regularly groomed to prevent knotting and matting of the fur. Bess’s fur had not reached any stages of severe matting, just a few knots here and there and with my friend’s schedule she just was not able to spend the time combing out the little knots each day.Instead of battling and feeling guilty about it she decided that a visit to the nearby animal grooming parlour would do Bess the world of good.

So my friend booked Bess an appointment for early Saturday morning, dropped Bess off and explained to the assistant at the grooming parlour that she was having trouble keeping up with combing out her dog’s fur, etc. and the assistant told her not to worry and that she could pick up a well groomed Bess in an hour.

One hour later my friend returned to pick up Bess and to her shock could barley recognise her own dog who now sported a completely short hair cut!The assistant had apparently misunderstood that all Bess needed was some good grooming and had assumed that shorter fur would help both Bess and her owner keep the knots out of Bess’s beautiful long fur.

Grooming parlours can be great and extremely useful to busy pet owners but be sure to be clear about what you want them to do for your dog – or you too might end up with a close shave and barely recognise your own dog!